Holly Black: You don't have to protect these people, Cassel." I am the...

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.

Holly Black

devil clever beauty

It's the flaw that brings out the beauty.

Holly Black

flaws

Mutually assured destruction.

Holly Black

mutually-assured-destruction assured destruction

Those who really love you don't mean to hurt you and if they do, you can't see it in their eyes but it hurts them too.

Holly Black

hurt love-you mean

I think Bob appreciated my outfit. He made me buy the more expensive pendant. You might think that was to my disadvantage, but I accept that status comes with a price.” “Not usually so immediately.” I shake my head. “You better not be hitting on federal agent ladies. They’ll arrest you.” His grin widens. “I like handcuffs.” I groan. “There is something seriously wrong with you.” “Nothing that a night being worked over by a hot representative of justice couldn’t fix.

Holly Black

justice night thinking

The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.

Holly Black

being-true want lying

If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.

Holly Black

cat curiosity satisfaction

Love changes us, but we change how we love too.

Holly Black

Isn't every hero aware of all the terrible reason they did those good deeds?" Aware of every mistake they ever made and how good people got hurt because of their decisions? Don't they recall the moments they weren't heroic at all? The moments where their heroism led to more deaths than deliberate villainy ever could?

Holly Black

hurt hero mistake

The row of dolls watched her impassively from the bookshelf, their tea party propriety almost certainly offended.

Holly Black

dolls party tea

I envy what I fear and hate what I envy.

Holly Black

corny envy hate

You can break a thing, but you cannot always guide it afterward into the shape you want.

Holly Black

shapes break want

Yeah, the whole family knows. It's no big deal. One night at dinner I said, 'Mom, you know the forbidden love that Spock has for Kirk? Well, me too.' It was easier for her to understand that way.

Holly Black

forbidden-love mom night

Someone could cut through the mess in our house and look at it like one might look at rings on a tree or layers of sediment. They'd find the black-and-white hairs of a dog we had when I was six, the acid-washed jeans my mother once wore, the seven blood-soaked pillowcases from the time I skinned my knee. All our family secrets rest in endless piles.

Holly Black

cutting dog mother

Life is like licking Honey from a Thorn

Holly Black

licking life-is-like honey

Librarians are hot. They have knowledge and power over their domain...It is no coincidence how many librarians are portrayed as having a passionate interior, hidden by a cool layer of reserve. Aren't books like that? On the shelf, their calm covers belie the intense experience of reading one. Reading inflames the soul. Now, what sort of person would be the keeper of such books?

Holly Black

knowledge-and-power reading book

I thought you needed to be tougher. But I've been thinking that protecting somebody by hurting them before someone else gets the chance isn't the kind of protecting that anybody wants.

Holly Black

hurt want thinking

Clever girl. You play with fire because you want to be burnt.

Holly Black

girl fire clever

Changing is what people do when they have no options left.

Holly Black

choices change people

I heard you've been having some problems with your girlfriend." Headmistress Northcutt says. "No," I say. "Not at all." Audrey broke up with me after the winter holiday, exhausted by my moodiness. It's impossible to have problems with a girlfriend who's no longer mine.

Holly Black

holiday girlfriend winter

You don't have to protect these people, Cassel." I am these people.